12/28/2005

This Move Would Make Sense

The University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Park campus in Long Beach suffered severe damage from Hurricane Katrina. None of the buildings are usable at this point. They have been there for almost 100 years on beautiful beach front property. There is a 500 year old live oak tree that is known as the Friendship Oak. A gazebo used to be around it and was a favorite gathering place for students and visitors. Some traditions are beautiful but sometimes realities need to be faced.

There are plans floating around to move the campus inland along I-10. To me, that would make a lot of sense. Not only would the campus be better protected from hurricanes, the campus would also be more centrally located.

At least college officials are planning on rebuilding or moving the location. The J.L. Scott Marine Education Center in Biloxi which is also run by USM will not be rebuilt. I can understand why.





Thousands of school kids passed through the Marine Education Center and had hands on experiences with horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs and other local marine life. The aquariums provided examples of fish such as grouper, drum fish, and even sharks.


I hope at some point someone will rebuild the Marine Education Center. But I really think that the USM Gulf Park Campus should be moved inland and in a more central location.

6 Comments:

Blogger Dan Zaremba said...

Those past experiences should make people analyze the situation and plan carefully for the worst possible scenario.

How far from the shore is your house located?

11:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

felis,

Mine is 10 miles inland.

5:33 AM  
Blogger Dan Zaremba said...

An so it is a fair distance away!!
Were your immediate neighbours' properties damaged very badly?
I am just thinking about some kind possible security measures - it's not that my opinion would matter.

1:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

felis,

On my street there 3 homes that had to be demolished. 8 that suffered significant roof damage(part of the roof torn off). There was only 4 houses on my street that had only minor or no damage, mine and 3 others. I'm just counting the ones directly on my street and not any of those on side streets. It was all wind damage.

2:24 PM  
Blogger Dan Zaremba said...

It was all wind damage.

I c.
Wind damage, I believe, is not as bad as water damage.
(Not as much 'cleaning').
In many places in Oz we have some kind of earth wall systems, and dunes where also shrubs, and other green things are planted to hold it together.
They serve double purpose (I think); preserve the beaches and take some impact in case the ocean gets “angry”.

3:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

felis,

We have a six foot sea wall and USM was experimenting with something similiar to what you describe along the beach. The places where it flourished suffered almost the same amount of damage. All the trees, the bushes, the sand and earth dunes are gone in those areas.

The buildings across from it faired somewhat better. The first two buildings of apartments are gone as are a lot of the shops.

3:49 PM  

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